How about "Angel From Montgomery"? The last two lines, in particular, always grab me. Reminds me of my dad...
Angel From Montgomery
©John Prine
I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that's grown old
If dreams were lightning thunder was desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago
Chorus:
Make me an angel that flies from Montgom'ry
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go
When I was a young girl well, I had me a cowboy
He weren't much to look at, just free rambling man
But that was a long time and no matter how I try
The years just flow by like a broken down dam.
Repeat Chorus:
There's flies in the kitchen I can hear 'em there buzzing
And I ain't done nothing since I woke up today.
How the hell can a person go to work in the morning
And come home in the evening and have nothing to say.
Repeat Chorus:
I love this song D'artagnan. I was talking about it with another poster earlier in the thread - I had always loved Bonnie Raitt's version and she had never heard it- she's heard John Denver do it - which I had never heard. I love the sad, poignant picture it paints - especially in the first verse - such evocative lyrics there.
(My dad was the opposite - he came home in the evening - and never stopped talking. We all live such different lives.)
Poignant pictures, for sure, aidan. I know his early albums best; shortly after I moved to Eugene in the early '70s, I got to know a pair of sisters from Anchorage. The elder, who I dated, had one of Prine's albums. I always think of those days when I hear the songs.
How about "Dear Abby"?
Yeah - that's what I love about him. He's so incredibly funny and his lyrics can be just really clever - but then he writes a really beautiful love song too. I also love his voice - he's smoked way too many cigarettes - but it makes his voice smoky and interesting. Multi-talented man. I heard my first John Prine album when I checked it out of our public library. I think I was about fifteen. I've been a fan ever since.
This one's right catchy and fun to sing along with.
She was a level-headed dancer on the road to alcohol
And I was just a soldier on my way to Montreal
Well she pressed her chest against me
About the time the juke box broke
Yeah, she gave me a peck on the back of the neck
And these are the words she spoke
[Chorus:]
Blow up your TV throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try an find Jesus on your own
Well, I sat there at the table and I acted real naive
For I knew that topless lady had something up her sleeve
Well, she danced around the bar room and she did the hoochy-coo
Yeah she sang her song all night long, tellin' me what to do
[Chorus]
Well, I was young and hungry and about to leave that place
When just as I was leavin', well she looked me in the face
I said "You must know the answer."
"She said, "No but I'll give it a try."
And to this very day we've been livin' our way
And here is the reason why
We blew up our TV threw away our paper
Went to the country, built us a home
Had a lot of children, fed 'em on peaches
They all found Jesus on their own
When I played in a bluegrass band back in the 70's this was real popular
Woke up this morning
Put on my slippers
Walked in the kitchen and died
And oh what a feeling!
When my soul
Went thru the ceiling
And on up into heaven I did ride
When I got there they did say
John, it happened this way
You slipped upon the floor
And hit your head
And all the angels say
Just before you passed away
These were the very last words
That you said:
Chorus:
Please don't bury me
Down in that cold cold ground
No, I'd druther have em cut me up
And pass me all around
Throw my brain in a hurricane
And the blind can have my eyes
And the deaf can take both of my ears
If they don't mind the size
Give my stomach to milwaukee
If they run out of beer
Put my socks in a cedar box
Just get em out of here
Venus de milo can have my arms
Look out! I've got your nose
Sell my heart to the junkman
And give my love to rose
Give my feet to the footloose
Careless, fancy free
Give my knees to the needy
Don't pull that stuff on me
Hand me down my walking cane
It's a sin to tell a lie
Send my mouth way down south
And kiss my ass goodbye
what a nice way to wake up - laughing. I'll be listening to him all day now...
Gee, I have a feeling no one's mentioned "Illegal Smile" yet. I won't quote the whole tune, but I love the last lines of the chorus:
"Won't you please tell the man
I didn't kill anyone,
I just want to have me some fun."
Which pretty much sums up the era, for some of us at least...
Yeah, I also like the lines from "Aint Hurtin' Nobody"
She's sitting on the back steps
Just shucking that corn
That gal's been grinning
since the day she was born
She aint hurting nobody
She aint hurting nooone
And that was me....
*I've had a little too much wine tonight - I'm making up my own words....
